


Roses are Red, Violence is Blue.

by FireOpal (Raven_At_The_Writing_Desk)



Series: Random Cayrd and Frias [7]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-26 17:05:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17749961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_At_The_Writing_Desk/pseuds/FireOpal
Summary: When the darkness comes for Frias, can Cayrd bring him back?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a valentines story based on the prompt Roses are Red.

Riel felt the ripple in the ship’s consciousness. It sent a shiver through their form and set alarms off in their mind. This felt familiar to them, from the times before Riel had managed to reason with the ship. It wasn’t good, and just as they thought it, they felt the ship’s mind close off to them completely.

  
***

  
Frias sat up in the darkness of his room. It was too dark, and he shivered in the covers. He wished Cayrd was there. The tall red-hair man and his chiseled abs were enough to make any bed warm. That and Cayrd’s body temperature was warmer than Frias in general.

Frias could use that warmth now, and the confronting noise of Cayrd’s heavy breathing beside him, to help drown out the whispers in his head.

It was too soon. He’d been home recently to be buried in the healing sands of his people, and then, he’d been sure to stop at a nice sunny planet only last week. He’d even made sure to sit under sun lamps here on the ship daily. He shouldn’t be hearing things.

*Feed me,* It whispered again, and Frias wished even harder Cayrd was there. Anything to distract him from the gnawing need to hunt. He’d successfully turned that need outward before, pinning Cayrd down on the bed one night and driving them both to exhaustion.

*Hungry* the voice said. *please.*

Frias covered his head with his arms and rocked a little.

“No, no, no,” Frias chanted.

*Feed Me!* The voice demanded, and Frias blacked out.  
***  
Cayrd sighed, taking another swig of his beer and looking over documents for various recurs for salvage or random missions. Cayrd enjoyed the missions but hated the paperwork. Especially when it kept him from Frias’ bed.

  
He yawned. It was getting late in his day cycle and he was tried. Too late to wake Frias just to crawl into his bed. Cayrd sighed again, rubbed his eyes and looked over at the cot he kept in his office. He started to get up to lay down, then his com went off.

“Roewing,” It was Riel, and Cayrd pinched the bridge of his nose.

  
“Ah was just heading ta bed,” Cayrd grumbled.

  
“Commander’s meeting, it’s important.” Rail said nothing more and cut out.

  
Cayrd growled again but grabbed up his commander’s coat and leaving his office to go to the conference room.

  
Inside the room, the other four commanders were gathered, Riel, sitting in his favored Humanoid Bear form overseeing the gathering. Esmie, Tark, and the new guy Cayrd hadn’t bothered to learn their name yet, sat around the table. He didn’t like the look on Riel’s face.

“The ship has closed itself off to me.” Riel began. “I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s because of an outside force.”

  
“Well, that’s a hell of an issue.” Cayrd took a seat and looked at Riel. Cayrd knew that Riel was a psychic creature, and so was the entity that made up the Hubris, the converted space cruise ship that this motley crew of salvager's and riff-raff had taken over. Riel was the only one of them that was able to communicate with the ship, which was extremely important because, with that contact, the ship had a bad habit of eating the crew.

  
“We’ve already begun to scan the area to find anything out of the ordinary.” The new guy said. Cayrd knew the guy was in charge of communications and such.

  
“And we’re scouring the ship looking for internal issues,” Esmie said, she ran the maintenance and tech crews. Cayrd looked over at Tark. The two f them ran the off-ship missions, but their crew was perfectly ok being used on the ship too.

  
“We’ll wake our crew up, and have them start searching for people who don’t belong,” Cayrd said and Tark nodded.

  
“We should run them in shifts,” Tark said. “Keep them hunting around the clock.”

“I’ve already alerted my crew,” Riel said, “but I need to see what I can do to reestablish a connection with the ship. I need to concentrate on that. My second in command is going to take over for me, but I’ll be checking in.” Everyone nodded. “We must also assume that the ship is hunting again.”

  
“Are we going to warn anyone?” Cayrd asked, knowing the answer.

  
“It’ll be enough that we keep tabs. If the ship wants blood, it’ll find a way to get it. It’s not like we can stop it.” Tark said. Cayrd shook his head.

  
“Then we need ta dock and get everyone off. We’re not far from Osbe Port. We can be there in under a shift.” Cayrd pulled the coordinates up on his com and shared it to the viewscreen built into the table.

  
“A bit of an overreaction?” Tark said, clicking insectoid mandibles together. Cayrd snarled at him.

  
“Ahm not loosing crew over this if it can be avoided.” Cayrd tapped the tabletop with a finger. Tark clicked dismissively.

  
“It’s fine,” Riel cut the two off. “It’s a good plan.” Riel stood. “I’ll send the orders up to the bridge, but I’m going to stay on the ship.”

  
Cayrd stay seated as the others stood to go. He pulled out his com and woke Ooulai and Pelivlor. He told them to huddle and contact him every fifteen minutes till they landed on Osbe Port, then they were to get the fuck off the ship till he called them back.

  
He stood and sent a few more messages off. Waking his other crew and giving them orders to start searching the place for anything out of the ordinary. He had one last stop to make, he guessed he was going to wake Frias up anyway.

 

***

 

 


	2. two

  
But Frias wasn’t there when he let himself in. Cayrd stood in the dark room looking around. Since Frias’ rather messy break-up, he’d managed to find a small solo-cabin to make into a cozy home. Unlike Cayrd’s spartan cabin, this one was comfortable, with a small reading nook and a well-stocked pantry and cobbled together kitchen. It lacked a bathroom though, which was the only reason Cayrd favored his own cabin over Frias’.

  
The emptiness of the room took away all the comfort it might have provided. It set his teeth on edge and he took to his com to try and find Frias. When he didn’t answer, Cayrd muttered at himself. Frias wasn’t supposed to be on a mission or on shift, not as far as knew.

  
He knew he should just go back to his office and begin organizing the search for the ships issue and the eventual evacuation. When he left the cabin, he was on the hunt for Frias.

  
***

  
Frias blinked under the lukewarm water of the showers, something thick and blood like running off him in the spray. He didn’t rememberer getting here, or know what the gunk on him was. He sighed and rested his head against the wall of the shower stall, trying to remember the past hour. Nothing came, and all he could think was how dirty he was, and how he wanted to be clean.

  
Scrubbing himself down Frias heard the buzz of his com. He sighed miserably, it could only be either Zan needing him in medbay, or Cayrd. He wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to either of them. He stepped out of the shower and heard the dig of the clothes refresher signaling the load inside it was done.

  
He looked around to find his clothes and didn’t see any. He was worried and slowly went to check the refresher. His mission outfit was inside. Black and sleek looking, clean of whatever had been on it. Frias reached out with a trembling hand taking the still slightly warm clothes. He'd never wear these if he wasn’t on a mission. They were armored and had an invisibility field on them to make stalking and killing easier. But he’d never just wear them on the ship, on the ship he was a medic and he had a different uniform for that.

  
He didn’t have any other clothes here though, so he pulled these on and decided to head back to his cabin. People were scurrying around the halls as he walked, they seemed to ignore him though. Why should they notice him, he looked normal enough. He got near the hall where his cabin was and saw Cayrd stalking towards him looking pissed.

  
“Cayrd?” He stopped and looked around, what was going on?

***

  
“Don’t ya check yer fucking com?” Cayrd growled, a wash of relief adding an edge to his tone. Frias flinched and Cayrd took a deep breath. He saw Frias look at his com and wince again.

  
“I was asleep,” Frias sounded sheepish and Cayrd noticed his hair was wet.

  
“Ya sleeping in the showers?” Cayrd asked, still on edge. Frias shook his head.

  
“I, was dirty,” Frias shrugged and Cayrd looked him over. Frias looked anything but dirty. His clothes were fresh, his hair and skin still pink from the shower. Cayrd noticed that Frias was wearing his mission clothes, had he been on a mission? He didn't’ care right now.

“Grab yer overnight bag, Ah want ya ta stay with me till we land at Osbe Port.” Cayrd checked his com as it buzzed, Pelivlor and Ooulai were checking in. He looked back up to see Frias looking worried. “What?”

  
“I don’t know, what’s going on?” Frias looked around again seeing a group of the crew go by.

  
“There’s an issue with the ship. We think there might be a saboteur on board, so we’re looking fer them.” Cayrd spoke the lie easy enough. As much as he didn’t want to lie to Frias, the truth only put him in danger.

  
“I can handle a saboteur,” Frias said walking towards his cabin. Cayrd knew Frias preferred his space over Cayrd’s, but it wasn’t an option he was willing to tolerate.

  
“Ah know, but I want ya with me,” Cayrd said and Frias turned to look at him. He had a slight smile on his haggard face. Cayrd couldn’t help but return it.

  
“Alright, let me get mah stuff,” Frias said and ducked into his cabin. Cayrd waited, checking his com again. They weren’t finding anything, but no one was coming up missing, yet.

***

Frias packed his bag quickly not sure what to do. He’d warned Cayrd once about his people’s weakness, but no one, not even his ex had seen him in the grips of it. He was afraid for Cayrd to see him, afraid Cayrd would reject him and probably kill him for being an unhinged murderer. The prospect of that made him pause half way through packing and just sit on his bed.

  
He wasn’t sure what was worse, being overtaken by some force he didn’t understand, or the possibility of Cayrd rejecting him. He loved Cayrd, even if he was too shy to tell him. The idea that Cayrd would be disappointed in him, enough to send him away or even kill him, hurt in a way Frias hadn’t expected.

  
“Lover?” Cayrd asked from the doorway. His tone was soft now, not like in the hall. Frias looked up and mustered a smile again. “Are ya alright?”

  
“Yeah, just a little cold is all.” Frias stuffed a few more things in his bag and went to Cayrd. If this was to be his last moments with Cayrd, then he’d be brave about it. He stood up and took Cayrd’s hand briefly. Cayrd stepped in a bit more and bent down, pulling Frias closer.

  
“Ah’ll warm ya up then,” Cayrd purred before kissing him softly. Frias sighed but melted into the kiss. Cayrd pulled away slowly. “Ready?”

  
Frias nodded and followed Cayrd back to his office.

  
***

  
Cayrd crossed over to his desk when they got to his office. He needed to check a few things but he ruffled Frias’ hair as he passed.

  
“Go get comfortable, Ah need ta make sure things are going smoothly,” Cayrd looked Frias over trying to hide his worry. Frias looked off, but Cayrd couldn’t figure why. “If ya need at sleep, Ah’ll just curl in bed with ya when Ahm done.”

  
Frias gave him another almost sad smile, and Cayrd felt something in him ache. He hated seeing Frias in any other mood but happy. Frias didn’t say anything else though, and just headed back to the small bed Cayrd kept in the back. Cayrd let him go, worried now, but summoned by his com buzzing. He swore once this was all settled he was going to convince Frias to go away with him someplace warm and sunny for a few days.

  
His com buzzed again and he looked at it irritated.

  
“We have two reposts of no-shows for their shifts,” Tark sent. “One is a messy kill.” Tark attached pictures and Cayrd felt his stomach clench. The ship was hunting, and it looked like it had help.

 


End file.
